Synopsis
In 1904, Mume married Gozaemon
MASUNAGA, the eldest son of the village
headman of Asozu Village, Asuwa County, Fukui
Prefecture, and spent her busy days raising
children and keeping the house. One day,
Kohachi, Gozaemon's younger brother returns
home from Osaka where he has been working,
and asks if the whole village can get involved in
eyeglass production. He says that glasses are
almost unknown today, but with the spread of
print culture, they will surely become a
necessity. If the project succeeds, it will help
farmers who have no harvest in the winter to
make a living. At first, Gozaemon is opposed to
the idea, but when he sees a child with weak
eyesight gets overjoyed wearing the glasses, he
decides to take on the challenge and gathers the
people of the village to open a factory.
However, the glasses they had painstakingly
finished were turned away by the wholesaler
because they were "unsalable" then. They were
also forced to take out a bank loan due to
financial difficulties, and the brothers suffered
setbacks time and time again. The brothers were
repeatedly frustrated, but Mume who has a
strong heart and never gives up on their dream
believed in them, and she devotedly supported
them. Encouraged by her, the brothers and the
craftsmen take the "last gamble"...